3rd letter from Eindhoven, Netherlands -- Week 51

Elder Ben

Last time seeing President and Sister Robinson

Elder Steenblik, Elder Jesse Holt and Zuster Aubrey Watts

Eindhoven is huge when it comes to graffiti and it's everywhere.  This one is pretty sick!

Elder Steenblik with his homie Genzeer

Ben's kitchen

Ben's tiny stove and tiny fridge

Ben's TINY bed under the window (Bless his legs and back!!)

Ben's closet on the right

Ben's bathroom/laundry room

Ben's study area

Ben's front room

Ben's stairs in his apartment

Goede Dag Jongens,

This week we had our zone training! It is nice to have it over because it was a little stressful preparing for it, but it went great.  It was down in Antwerpen Belgium.  Every time I go back to Belgium, it just makes me miss it! Hopefully I will have the chance to serve there again.  For the first 2 hours of our training, we were combined with the Belgian Zone and President and Sister Robinson gave their final presentations.  It was nice to hear from them one last time.  Then we split off with our zone and started our training.  It was crazy because we ended up having way less time than expected, so we were scrambling the whole time to rearrange everything.  It sure kept us on our toes! Elder Holt, Zuster Watts, and I all gave presentations.  After lunch, the district leaders did workshops.  It was an awesome day.  We left at 6 15 in the morning and got home at 8 45 that night.  We were pretty dang pooped!

We eat with a woman named Sister Van Der Riet every week and this week we decided to cook her some food.  Elder Holt and I made 3 huge plates of taco salad with Doritos and French fries in it.  It actually turned out amazing, but I hated cooking it.  When we were walking the pans to the car, Elder Holt tried to set the pan down in the back and dropped it! Now there is taco salad all over the back of our car and on a nice warm day, you can smell some delicious Mexican food in the car.

We met with a less active guy this week named Genzeer.  He is from Sudan and he is just a total Bro.  He was baptized when Elder Alston was here and he is just so nice and happy.  Hopefully we can get him to church soon.

Saturday, we had District Leader Council with all of the district leaders in our zone.  Afterwards, we all went out to eat at an awesome Italian place and the calzones were enormous.  The food took forever to come out and we had to travel out to Maastricht to work with the sisters, so we had to hit the road right after.  We ended up getting stuck in traffic and by the time we got to Maastricht, we only had 30 minutes to work with the sisters, but it was still great.  Maastricht is super a beautiful city!

We also met twice this week with an investigator named Frank.  He is a great big tall Dutch guy.  He loves parables and deep metaphors and what not.  He has a super good knowledge about the gospel, but is a little bit scared to come to church.  We are trying our best to help him take that step and come to church.

Elder Holt is an awesome companion and is a super good worker.  He is 6 years older than me! At first I didn’t really think much of it, but then I realized that when I was in 6th grade, he was a senior! He is even older than my older brother, Jake.  We get along super well.

On Sunday we had a guest service at church, so all of the members invited friends and less active members.  The running count of Peruvians in the ward is up to 11.  There are so many that we had our gospel principles class in Spanish! We get lots of Peruvian food throughout the week which is just lovely.

This next week is going to be super busy with exchanges and splits and all of that good stuff.  I am loving every second out here.  The church is true and God loves you.  Deuces.

                                                  -Elder Steenblik

2nd letter from Eindhoven, Netherlands -- Week 50

Elder Steenblik, Elder Frisby, Elder Ames and Elder Parr

Our sweet backyard.  It's the best in our hood!

  This is what Ben's companion, Elder Jesse Holt had to say about Ben in his blog entry last week.  "Transfers are done and the new one begins today!  I got my new companion, Elder Steenblik.  He´s a funny, tall dude.  I don´t know what it is, but most of my companions are pretty dang tall.  Elder Steenblik is from Salt Lake and has a talent with working with people. I´m excited to have the chance to serve with him for a minimum of 6 weeks!"

Yo! 

Wow, what a great first week in Eindhoven it has been! Even though I wasn’t even in Eindhoven for most of the week.

Last Monday we decided to do some work in the garden in our backyard, so we bought some flowers and planted them.  I even got to mow a little patch of grass! We have the best lookin’ yard in the neighborhood now.  You better believe that!

On Tuesday I was on an exchange in Heerlen with Elder Lundburg.  We taught a lesson to a man from Africa who was baptized a couple of months ago.  We taught him about doing baptisms for the dead for his ancestors.  He got super scared and said that he would never do it and that he was terrified of even the thought of it.  Apparently back in Africa, he saw some creepy things with people summoning their ancestors and a ton of weird black magic stuff.  We taught him how baptism is a saving ordinance and not everyone will get the chance to do it in this life, so it is our responsibility to do it for them.  I told him that his ancestors wouldn’t haunt him for doing it, they would give him a big hug and thank him! It was cool to see the change in him by the end of the lesson.  He now has an appointment on Sunday to get a temple recommend.

Wednesday I was on an exchange in Amsterdam with Elder Ames.  Elder Parr had forgotten his retainer, so we had to drive up to Zaandam to give it to him.  We ended up eating dinner with them.  Elder Parr´s companion is Elder Frisby! It was nice to kick it with some of my old companions.

Thursday we went all the way up to Arnhem to work with the Sisters for the day.  We were on trains for like 3 hours and by the time we got there, we only had like 30 minutes before we had to come back! But it was a good 30 minutes at least.  It was nice to get back home on Thursday night.  I had been on the road for 3 days!

Friday morning we drove up to The Hague for mission leader council.  We were so close to running out of gas and we couldn’t find a gas station forever, but we found one just in time.  The council was great! We got training on extending commitments.  This was President Robinson´s last council and it was a good one.  After the council, we had a waxing party! All of us went outside and waxed our cars.  On the drive home, we got stuck in a ton of traffic and it ended up being a 3 1/3 hour drive home.  We were an hour late for our dinner appointment! Luckily they were chill and understanding about it.

On my mission I have really been able to see my strengths and weaknesses at work.  One strength I have found is changing light bulbs! In the past month alone, I have changed 3 light bulbs and 1 smoke detector. Anytime we walk into someone’s house, they just hand me a light bulb and ask me to change it!

Also, miracle of the week.  We went through a car wash.  Like, the kind that you drive through.  It was the most excitement I have had in months! Haha.

This week we are looking forward to giving a zone training on Thursday down in Antwerpen, Belgium. Maybe we will even have some time to work in Eindhoven.  I have only had one full day where we got to work in Eindhoven, but so far it is a great city!

                                  -Elder Steenblik

1st letter from Eindhoven, Netherlands -- Week 49

Hengelo District

Bishop and Sister De Ceunnick Van Capelle  -- Hengelo

This is the Awesome Alderink family in Hengelo  --  We ate with them every week

Hey Homies,

Well, I am in Eindhoven! Transfer day was absolutely terrible as usual.  Trains, train stations and lugging big bags around all day, but I made it in one piece! I don’t have my bike though.  Stuff got all messed up, so it is in another city with the Elders there.  Overall, it was pretty smooth transfer.

On my first day here, we met with a less active girl here.  She looks just like Shakira! We call her Sister Shakira.  She is from Peru, so she made some awesome Peruvian food for us.  I have actually missed Peruvian rice! Then 3 other Spanish ladies came over and we just had a Spanish partay.

I also had the chance to give a baptismal interview this week as well! We drove out to Heerlen to meet with one of their investigators.  It was about a 1 ½ hour drive.  I love giving baptismal interviews! They are amazing.  The guy I interviewed is an older Dutch man who had done all sorts of drugs and everything else his entire life, but saw the missionaries on the street one day and went up to them and talked to them.  He shared his experience with me about how he has been changed by the Atonement.  That is one of the best things about a mission, is you get to see firsthand how the Atonement can literally change people. 

We spent a ton of time planning these first couple of days.  You should see our schedule! We literally have 2 days in the next 6 weeks where we don’t have a meeting or an exchange.  We are going to be nice and busy.  I am super excited!

Eindhoven is a 4 man.  It’s Elder Holt and me along with Elder Goates and his greenie, Elder Van Vleet.  Our washing machine is broken, so we have to use member’s washing machines until our new one gets here.  Eindhoven is great and the ward is all really cool.  There is like a 2 week waiting list for dinner appointments, so we basically have one every single day.  Our house is 3 stories and pretty nice.  I’ll take pics another time.  We have a car as well! Thank the Lord! I still can’t drive though.... Hopefully my license will come soon, but as for now, Elder Holt is my chauffeur.  Elder Holt is Canadian, but he is still great! He is 5 feet 6 inches, so I am like a foot taller than him.  He is a super cool guy and has a very subtle Canadian accent.  He is basically a typical Canadian.  Loves hockey, maple syrup, he is super polite, kind and loving.  We get along super well.

There is a member here named Harry.  He is 84 years old and works with the missionaries EVERY SINGLE DAY! He loves to just go out and knock doors, teach, or whatever with the missionaries.  He even has his own nametag.  He is a hilarious old Dutchman.  We were at his house the other day and he asked me if I wanted a drink, so I said sure.  He went to his fridge and came back with 2 Monster energy drinks! I shared a Monster with an 84 year old man.  That’s not something you do every day!

We have like 3 other Peruvian women in the ward.  They all love it that I have been to Peru.  They all want to make us Peruvian food now.   :D

This week is a busy week and that’s great.  I have loved my first 4 days in Eindhoven.  This transfer is going to be awesome!

Love you all!

Elder Steenblik